Self-generated whisker movements drive state-dependent sensory input to developing barrel cortex [article]

James C Dooley, Ryan M Glanz, Greta Sokoloff, Mark S Blumberg
2020 bioRxiv   pre-print
Brain development is an activity-dependent process. One persistent debate concerns the importance of sensory feedback from self-generated movements as a source of neural activity in developing sensorimotor cortex. Because previous research has demonstrated that behavioral state moderates the relationship between movement and cortical activity, inattention to behavioral state leads to erroneous assessments of their relationship. Thus, we recorded neural activity in the barrel cortex in 5-day-old
more » ... rats while monitoring whisker movements and sleep-wake states. Over half of the observed cortical activity was attributable to whisker movements, especially to the myoclonic twitches that occur during active (REM) sleep. Also, higher-amplitude whisker movements-again, especially twitches-were more likely than lower-amplitude movements to trigger barrel activity. These results highlight the role of sensory feedback in driving early cortical activity and underscore the critical importance of monitoring sleep-wake states for accurate assessment of the contributions of the sensory periphery to somatosensory development.
doi:10.1101/2020.01.21.914259 fatcat:ntvjen53kfbffbvgsjx2tf7m34